Michael Hibbard

Tag: religion

Today, as promised, we are going to explore the concepts of the Weird and Weirdness which is borrowed from the concept Quantum Weirdness, or what Einstein called Spooky Action at a Distance. There is one such known phenomenon that I discussed in a previous post called Quantum Entanglement, which is an unexplained mystery where by two particles can be created and sent across the vast distance of our universe, and if you change the spin of one particle, the other one instantaneously changes its spin. This, my friends, is the very basis for all of my theories behind the Waking Dream, the fundamental Oneness of all things in the universe, and the argument for magic, which I simple call Weirdness.

I have taken liberty through my own studies and thought exercises to conclude that Dark Energy is the basis for this weird behavior of our universe. In my theory, Dark Energy is all information stored since the beginning of our universe, which is why it constitutes a whopping 68.3% of our universe — and it continues to grow as the expansion of the universe demonstrates.

In a paper published by my friend Erik Andrulis, “Theory of the Origin, Evolution, and Nature of Life.” he posits arguments which could further the idea of this interconnectedness of our universe and all of the fundamental particles. I highly recommend that you give it a read and come to your own conclusions. It is time to go back to the drawing board and look at our wonderfully amazing universe from a different perspective.

The Way of the Weird

The Weird

All things are created from what I call The Weird, it is an energy source that allows matter to be created and manipulated. It exists in a place between our reality, which I have called the Spaces Between. And in the bosom of the Weird all consciousness is created. It is from this Weird that Dreamers and Immortals are able to manipulate the Waking Dream. The ability to manipulate comes from the information and experiences we encounter in our day-to-day lives, forever recorded within the Spaces Between, allowing us to do amazing things. Through this increased understanding of our universe, we are able to make things better — such as moving from mud huts, to homes, to skyscrapers. All of this is inherently magical unto itself, however we have allowed it to simply become a mundane aspect of life. The fact that you can move a glass from the table to your mouth, then back again, is in of itself Weird. And we take it for granted.

In the Waking Dream, Dreamers and Immortals are able to tap into this eternal knowledge and there by manipulate the Dream, using an ability called Weirdness. But rather than just using mundane actions to manipulate the Waking Dream, they are able to return magic to the world, both good and evil.

The Weirdness

Weirdness is magic of the Waking Dream. It is the ability to manipulate things in a supernatural sense. This gift comes from the knowledge that the universe IS a Waking Dream, and is not available to anyone who is not a Dreamer or an Immortal. Being a Dreamer requires one to accept the fundamental principle that the universe is a Waking Dream and that everything within it is connected. It is this interconnectedness that allows the Dream to be manipulated. If you are connected to everything everywhere in the universe, then you can manipulate it through this connection.

Weirdness is like an electrical current that transmits your will to other connected objects, allowing one to act upon it. We do this every day in a physical sense, but there are very few who have recognized that they can do this at the quantum level. All particles only exist as matter when they are required to interact, this is what we have learned through the wave/particle duality phenomenon. An electron, for instance, is not always there. It has a probability to be anywhere in the universe, though the probability lessens the further due to its relative position in the current moment. It also exhibits very strange properties which we still do not understand, but I will have to explain this more with an analogy.

Every single atom in your body is made of a nucleus which consists of protons and neutrons. And orbiting this nucleus, are one or more electrons. Now, here is Weirdness number one about the atom — it is mostly empty space. If we were to compare a solar system to an atom, putting them on a similar scale, with the sun acting as the nucleus, and the planets are the electrons, the distances between the nucleus and the electrons would have just as vast distances as the planets do with the sun. Hence it is mostly empty space between in each and every one of the billions of atoms that make up just your body.

The second Weirdness about the atom, is that the electrons move in completely unexplained ways from one orbit to the next. They simply pop out of existence and appear in another orbit in the atom. It is important to understand this point, they are there one moment, then somewhere else the next, with no time in between. Taking our planet analogy, this would be like Mars and Earth instantaneously switching places in their orbits around the sun. Earth and Mars would vanish simultaneously and reappear instantaneously in their different orbits.

The Weirdness ability in the Waking Dream uses these strange mysteries forces to cause things to be changed or come into creation. This is possible because in the Weird all experience exists, and we all know this, but we have chosen to forget it. But like any street magician, one must learn to fool the observer after much trial and error, until they perfect their trick. This is why a Dreamer is born without knowledge of their inherent Weirdness, and they must find their own unique way to express it, as I explain in my previous post.

Conclusion

This is a great deal of information for one to process, but there are many books and theories the both support and invalidate what I have said. This cancellation, thrusts my assertions into the realm of philosophical debate. It can only be tested one way, one must believe it, and simply do it.

Over the course of my life, I have met people with very strange abilities that I would absolutely call Weirdness. I have met charlatan magicians and fortune-tellers, but I have also met people who have been able to tell things or see things that they could not possible have known or observed in 10 minutes. Magic still exists, as any child will tell you. Perhaps it is time to look at the world around you and see it as a child would, full of wonder and awe and unfettered beliefs. It is only then that you an Awaken your Weirdness and change the world to be what it has the potential to be.

Next time, we will explore the realms of the Waking Dream Universe — The Waking Dream, the Sleeping Dream, and the Spaces Between.

In my last post we discussed the concepts of Immortality in the Waking Dream Universe. Today we are going to discuss the two other types of beings in the Waking Dream Universe — Dreamers and Sleepers.

But before we begin, I wanted to clarify that a Planet-Bound Immortal was once a Dreamer, and it is through the process of Awakening and Enlightenment that a Dreamer becomes an Immortal.

There is a two tiered allegorical argument when we speak of Dreamers and Sleepers. Dreamers, and Immortals, are the Architects of the Waking Dream. They are also those who will not sit idly by and allow their lives to be affected by others. They are people from all walks of life, from white-collar to blue-collar. Sleepers on the other hand, are the engineers or worker bees. They are people who do not accept that they have control over their life and look to the Dreamers to lead them. This is not meant as a derogatory statement, it is a simple observation. In one sense, Dreamers are the observer, collectively, in a solipsistic world, where the Sleepers do not really exist other than to be actors in the Dreamer/Immortal play.

Of Sleepers and Dreamers

Sleepers

In the Waking Dream, Sleepers can best be thought of as automatons, or robots. They are the vessel through which Dreamers can occupy the Waking Dream. They are born, live their lives according to the design of the Dreamers and Immortals. They are a function of the grand algorithm created at the beginning of the universe, as designed by the Creator. Their main purposes are to make the world for the Dreamers to live in, and serve as bodies for the Dreamers to interact with the physical reality. As mentioned in my first post in the series, when a Dreamer dies, they return to the Spaces Between, which can be compared to the Afterlife, or what I like to call, the InBetweenLife. It is the realm of the Weird, and it is from there that all consciousness emanates.

One point that needs to be made is that any living thing is a Dreamer, so it is not limited to humans. It may be the desire of a Dreamer to inhabit an animal, or a tree, because the Waking Dream is about experiencing the universe. We created the Waking Dream to explore every aspect of the universe, because it is a gift to have consciousness, and a gift to have such an amazingly diverse reality to explore.

Dreamers

Dreamers, at the base level, are pure consciousness. When they are not inhabiting a Sleeper and affecting the Waking Dream, they can peer into the life of any Sleeper and determine whether they wish to inhabit them. They also, for a limited time, can enter the Waking Dream, in an incorporeal form. Both Sleepers and corporeal Dreamers, can sometimes see them in these ghostly forms, which is where ghost sightings come from. Sometimes, they do forget that they are not in a body, and will return to a place they died again and again, depending on the manner of their death. Particularly violent deaths can cause a Dreamer to temporarily get stuck in a pattern, and this is what constitutes a haunting.

When a Dreamer enters the body of a Sleeper, at any stage of the Sleeper’s life, they take on the memories and persona of that Dreamer, much like when one chooses a character in a game. They forget all their past lives and memories, and the fact that they are a Dreamer. This is when they begin the quest to Awaken and use their Weirdness to affect the Waking Dream. One can think of this as learning how to operate a new vehicle. Once the Dreamer has full control of the vehicle, and knows its limitations, both physically, mentally and socially, the Dreamer can then undergo the process of Awakening, which happens differently for everyone. It is usually brought on by trauma of some variety, like someone slapping you in the face saying “Wake up!”.

Dreamers are connected to the Spaces Between by the Somnambula, or what used to be called the Silver Cord. This is how they are able to channel the energy, or Weirdness, to affect the Waking Dream. This also accounts for why Dreamers experience deja vu, as sometimes a location, conversation or experience, triggers a memory stored in the Weird.

All Dreamers exert their will on the Waking Dream in different ways, but they are usually subtle, as it takes a great deal of energy to create more dramatic effects, such as throwing a fireball at someone, which is possible, but usually only by Immortals who have a greater command of their Weirdness. Dreamers usually exert their Weirdness through either mundane abilities such as charisma to become a leader, or extraordinary creative abilities such as musicians, artists or writers. The more famous a Dreamer is usually tied to their Weirdness.

Other Dreamers exert their will in supernatural ways, such as practicing ritualistic magic, such as alchemy, Wicca, witchcraft or illusions. Others have abilities such as empathy, telepathy, telekinesis, or second sight. But there are many more ways in which Dreamers can exert their Weirdness.

Conclusion

In closing, I would like to propose to you a personal experiment. While I am presenting these ideas of the Waking Dream as fiction, there are some truths woven within this view of the universe as a Waking Dream. I tend to think that the only people who read my blog are Dreamers. They are people seeking others to share their thoughts, and learn from one another. They want to believe that they have greater control of their life and environment, yet they lack the solidarity from others with the same thoughts. This can be seen with the development of religion. Each religion has common beliefs among all of its members so that their beliefs become more real to the collective.

Take a look at your life, and see if you have your own Weirdness. Is it possible that all of the universe is really not what we think it is? Is it possible we are responsible for everything that happens on our planet on every level? The universe is inherently weird in the way that it operates. We still have not come to any conclusive evidence than anything we see is actually there. There is no way to know, and that, my friends, makes life all the more mysterious, wonderful and exciting to explore. If we have limits, it is because we have imposed those limits upon ourselves.

The re-release of Waking Dream: Devlin Book I is on time and will be out on September 22nd! You can pre-order a signed copy today by visiting this link.

Immortal Memories: Volume I has been sent to the editor and includes 2 brand new stories, the expanded version of Place of the Sisters and Vacant Eyes on the Eternal Sea!

Now that all the editing is behind me, I am full force on Waking Dream: The Unkindness Book II. A dark plot will be revealed, and many new characters introduced. This will be a face paced, action-filled book with elements of horror, the paranormal and the supernatural.

I am tentatively expecting to release in the first quarter of 2014! And then I will be working on Waking Dream: The Black Heart Book III, ending the Transformation Series.

Also, mark your calendars for the week of Halloween when I will be interviewed on the Nationally Syndicated radio show The Book Report with Elaine Charles. It will be on air and available through iTunes Podcasts.

This is part 2 in a the blog series about the Waking Dream Philosophy. Today we are going to discuss my concept of Immortality and the difference between a Celestial Immortal and Planet Bound Immortals.

Let’s begin!

Before I get into the particulars specific to Immortality in the Waking Dream, I wanted to talk about the various forms and thoughts surrounding the concept of Immortality. Many cultures throughout history have tried, and continue to try, to wrestle with their own mortality. Death is the ultimate fear, and all fear ties back to death in some form or fashion. But the pursuit of immortality is of the physical variety. And were people able to be Immortal in physical form, we would soon over-populate the planet, unsustainable growth. The planet has a capacity, and until we find means to move to other solar systems and galaxies, we cannot afford an immortal populace. With my fiction aside, my personal belief is that we are immortal spiritually. Our consciousnesses, once formed, are permanently imprinted on the universe. We become a never-ending story in the library of the universe. Now on to Immortality in the Waking Dream.

The Story of Immortality

There are two types of Immortals in the Waking Dream Universe — The Celestial Immortals and the Planet bound Immortals.

The Celestials

There are several Celestial Immortals of note in the Waking Dream Universe. Celestial Immortals are unique to every universe and they are different from all the other Immortals because they were “born” Immortal. As mentioned in the Story of Creation, these Immortals are, with addition to a few mysterious entities, are:

One

The Magician

The High Priestess

The Charnel One

The Dexter

The Sinister

The Angel

The Beast

Each of these Immortals is responsible for a certain aspect of the Waking Dream, similar to other polytheistic religions, however they are by no means Gods. They have existed since One had the first cogent thought in the vast nothing of the Spaces Between and awoke to the truth that the universe is a Waking Dream. Celestial Immortals are free to roam the universe, within a physical construct. They are also able to travel unhindered in the realm of the Weird, The Spaces Between (to be discussed in-depth in a later post).

It is seldom that Dreamers and Planet-Bound Immortals encounter these mysterious entities, and their true goals are completely unknown, though much speculation has been made. These eight Celestials are an immutable number, and there will always be eight in every single universe in the multiverse. They command the Weird with flawless accuracy and are not to be trifled with.

In addition to the eight Celestials, there is a mysterious ninth Celestial who is rumored to be the offspring of the Magician and the High Priestess. Little is known about this Immortal, and it is believed he/she is a hybrid between the Celestials and the Planet-Bound Immortals. He is simply known as the Hidden One, and is also rumored to possess the knowledge to wield the artifact, The Black Heart, to its full potential.

The Planet-Bound

There are two levels, so to speak, of Planet-Bound Immortals. There are the Prime Immortals and the Lesser Immortals. How the five Prime Immortals came to hold this stature over the other Immortals is not known, however, they are:

Gabryal of Sumeria

Shemhazai of Egypt

Grigor Falken of Crete

Olivia Morgan of The Celts

Deakin Droon of Scandinavia

These Planet-Bound Immortal, as their name suggests, are unable to incarnate themselves anywhere than on our planet. Little is understood why they are unable to leave the planet. Once any Dreamer attains Immortality on their respective planet, they are unable to leave until that planet has run its course. The only known way for a Planet-Bound Immortal to leave Earth is through destruction by super-nova. Once this has happened, they are free to choose another planet, whereby they will be bounded to their new home.

Deakin Droon was the last of the Prime Immortals to attain Immortality. After his ascension, it was a thousand years before the Lesser Immortals began to emerge. It is unknown what happened during the thousand years of spiritual darkness, however, any Dreamer attaining immortality since his ascension is considered Lesser.

Lesser Immortals tend to be between five hundred and a thousand years old. They do not possess the same level of understanding of the Weird, and they tend to align themselves, either consciously or sub-consciously with one of the Prime Immortals. It is unknown at the time of this writing how many Dreamers have attained this status.

Today I start a new series of posts describing the philosophy behind my upcoming novel, Waking Dream: Devlin Book I. The book will be going on sale on September 22, 2013 — The first day of Autumn. As an side note, all dates in the book and the actual release dates all play into the overall mystery of the series.

Let’s Begin!

At the basis of it all, the concept of the Waking Dream stems from my own personal studies in a variety of areas. Its more than just a series of fiction novels, it is an interwoven collection of things I have come to understand to be plausible with reference to the nature of our universe, the formation of life, the human soul and consciousness. I assert that our present scientific endeavors are looking for the wrong things and that some of the things presented as fact are indeed quite wrong. There are far too many unknowns, and most of all, we cannot understand nor explain the most fundamental aspect of our universe, Gravity. In addition, there is this lack of unifying the physics of the big things in our universe (stars, galaxies, planets, life) and the physics of the very small, quantum level (atoms, electrons, singularities). Even though there has been significant effort in this area, we are still no closer to a true Theory of Everything — well, not an accepted theory that is. At the end of this post I will list some of the books that have helped shape my understanding of the universe.

The Story of Creation

I began with the Unmoved Mover principle posited by Aristotle in his work Metaphysics. I had been struggling with my own agnosticism at the time, and had been reading the works of St. Thomas Aquinas as a part of my theology curriculum. After much study in this area, I determined that I had become more of a Deist and that we are responsible for how our lives unfold. The essence of Free Will. If the Creator is intervening in our lives, then we do not truly have Free Will. And I think this is personified even in the bible as “If a man will not work, he shall not eat” (2 Thessalonians 3:10) [“God helps those who helps themselves” is an ancient Greek derivative of this, yet not found in the bible thusly quoted]

In the Waking Dream, the Creator set the parameters for the universe, then moved on to other places, perhaps checking in on us from time to time out of curiosity. I have always found it quite paradoxical to think that an all supreme being would need us to worship him. We have created a God to worship for a variety of reasons — mostly to explain the things we cannot explain. But as time moves forward, we will require God less and less. This is the fundamental aspect of my philosophy behind the Waking Dream. Once we realize we are all One being, with each of us a facet of that one being, we will no longer need to rely on a God because we will realize that we are all God and One.

In the beginning, there was One — the first Immortal. It is he who set into motion the creation of the stars, galaxies, planets. And through this, other consciousnesses began to form in a place called The Spaces Between, the source of all the energy necessary for matter to exist. Souls/Spirits coalesce much in the same way stars do, swirling thoughts that accreted from this primordial energy.

One is just the first, and not God. And through him, the other Celestial Immortals were created through a predefined equation. From his essence, the Magician and the High Priestess came into being. They are the ones who created the parameters by which the incorporeal enter the physical realm of the Waking Dream. They also are the ones that defined the ability to affect the Waking Dream, known as Weirdness, my form of magic.

From the Magician and High Priestess, came the last of the Celestial Immortals, the Triad. They are the Dexter who governs Order, the Sinister who governs Chaos, and the Charnel One who governs death and reincarnation. And through the Triad the shells that our souls inhabit in the Waking Dream were created, the Sleepers.

All souls, or Dreamers and Immortals, must inhabit a body in the physical world to exist. Once they have done so, they live out their lives and eventually Awaken to understand that the universe is a Waking Dream. From this point, they are able to use the inherent Weirdness within all Dreamers to subtly affect the Waking Dream, making the world as it is today. And when they die, they return to the Spaces Between to begin all over again. A Dreamer does not consciously remember their former life, except through the phenomenon of Deja Vu. But when they return to the Spaces Between they retain all of the knowledge of their multitude of lives. This continues until they reach the state of Immortality, the goal of every Dreamer.

The next part in this series will explore Immortality and the differences between the Celestial Immortals and the Planet Bound Immortals.

I apologize for the hiatus on something meaningful and thought-provoking, but the common reality has a way of getting in the way of what I wish to explore.

Today, I am going to discuss connections, for I feel that there is a need to further explore how we are all One, and how this is possible. The more we can accept this simple truth the more chance we have of saving ourselves — and yes, it is a truth that I firmly and staunchly believe.

“Things fall apart — the center cannot hold. Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world. The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere. The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.” – The Second Coming by W.B. Yeats

This was the first poem I ever read when I started my English degree. The class was British Modern Age Literature and this poem, of all the wonderful poems in Yeats’ body of work, has haunted me for my entire adult life. But to put it in context of how it relates to our world is that We are all the center that cannot hold because we have lost our connections to the hub that is our Oneness — the singularity that binds us, yet allows us to explore our universe from different perspectives while sharing our observations.

My day job is filled with data analysis and I use artificial intelligences, namely neural networks, to process data. But, coding these automatons requires a deeper understanding of the biological construct which inspired them — the human brain. In the figure pictured above, you see how the billions of neurons in your brain are connected. When the mind is thinking, it is a storm of electrical surges that ripple like lightning over a rain filled thundercloud. Each neuron is connected, directly or indirectly to the whole through cause and effect. Each neuron processes a bit of information, and signals other connected neurons to fire and assist in the deduction of the appropriate response. For instance, when you see an apple, neurons fire that process color (red), shape (apple), ontology (fruit), context (edible) and spacial (distance). All happening at the speed of light, to deduce that what you are seeing is in fact an apple. But this does not happen without learning — i.e. positive and negative reinforcement.

An artificial intelligence is like a child. It must be trained and given experience. We train it by giving it known things. Such as, if we want a neural network to be able to recognize faces, we given it pictures and have it find them. When it is right, we “reward” it by telling it that it answered correctly. When it is wrong, we “scold” it. This process continues until we feel that the AI has a good grasp on what the general shape of a face is, but we do not over teach it, because we know that not all faces are created equal. Also, if we are processing photos, lighting, age, weight and other obstructions, can be hard to distinguish. We want the AI to be able to come to a conclusion on its own, with our gentle nudging in the right direction.

This is a typical layout for a very simple AI. We have three inputs, which are the variables or traits we know. The hidden layer connects all of the input neurons to the output neurons, and acts as the “memory” of known answers. This memory is all governed by very simple equations that strengthen or weaken connections between certain neurons. The stronger the connections, the more likely they will fire and produce the correct answer.

Now, you may be asking, why do I care about any of this? It’s very simple. If you look at the world, with every living organism as a neuron, we have connections. And, when we work in tandem, we produce an outcome. Sometimes we stay “wired” to one another, and produce a similar outcome, other times, we drift apart and make different connections, different outcomes. I have observed people in different settings. In one setting they will come up with different outcomes to the same inputs, depending on who they are with. As an example, you what to go to a movie. If you go with Group A, you will probably see a Romantic Comedy. If you go with Group B, you will probably go see a Horror film. The outcome is governed by the collective behavior and connections within that group. And if you decide you don’t want to see Romantic Comedies any longer, you will drift further from Group A when it comes to movie going, until the connection is weakened and possibly lost.

The point of this particular rambling is to punctuate that we as living organisms, not just humans, but all living things, function as a global mind. It is a very difficult concept to accept for many because it infringes on the “self”. However, every neuron in your brain is an individual, yet it must have input and connections to the rest of the brain to be of use. If it is not being used, it simply dies.

This is just another example of how we are all connected. Our global mind produces the outcomes that we experience in day-to-day life. And if the outcomes are not what we want, we must relearn, retrain ourselves, until we can achieve what it is we want. “Things fall apart”, yes, they have and do. But it within our power to make amends before the “rough beast slouches towards Bethlehem to be born”.

This is my hypothesis on Oneness, and I am opening the floor to be challenged on the validity of my analogy as I formulate a cogent theory of Oneness and Global Consciousness.

Continuing with our exploration of the universe, and all its glory, I want to talk about Oneness. Now you may think that this is not something related to the existence of the universe, but it is its most fundamental aspect.

The universe is an isolated system. Which means all of the energy — and subsequently matter — is finite. Which means, no new energy can enter or leave the universe. It can only change forms, and it constantly does.

Before we get into the nitty-gritty of Oneness, let us talk about the fundamentals. Every atom in your body was created by a star. From the carbon that forms all the molecules that make up your cells, to the iron in your blood, to the hydrogen and oxygen that make up the water, to the gold in your wedding band. Every bit of it was created by a star. This means, that we are literally made up from the cinders of burning stars.

We gain our energy from sunlight. All of the energy that drives us in one form or another is derived by the sun directly or indirectly. We consume plants and animals that are nourished by the sun. And when they die or we die, we give up that energy for new life to be reborn, and the cycle continues until this planet is no more. We cannot escape this. And to think that any one of us is any better than another is plainly and simply wrong. We all come from the same thing — no matter how much money you have, or what color your skin, or what religion you believe. We are all connected physically this way.

But now, let us move onto the spiritual or energetic relationship we share. As I mentioned in my previous post, I believe that all the knowledge and experience we create is shared amongst ourselves. We are all teachers and students. We thrive when we are learning from one another and sharing what we know. This extends far into the past, as we learn from our collective histories, and into the future as we know what is to come. It is only when we recognize that we are all connected that we can truly shed our differences and embrace each other as kin.

In my last post, I mentioned the existence of a creator, and I wanted to take a moment to discuss that, because our individual perceptions of a creator are as varied as there are people on the planet. Since I cannot prove nor disprove God, I would never make a statement that there is no God. I spent most of my life as an application programmer and architect. I know that an application does not write itself, nor can a house design itself. The variables that define the universe are so exquisitely defined that if just one of them were changed infinitesimally, the universe would not exist at all. If gravity were just a little strong or a little weaker, nothing would be as it is now. All our atoms would fly apart, or the universe would crush in on itself. So, being a programmer, I am willing to say that in the beginning there was an architect, but I cannot tell you whether he is within or without of our system.

But now that the universe exists, and it has balance. We have become the stewards. There really is no need for a God figure because we have been given everything we need to exist. And now we all are collectively God, because we are in control of our reality whether we accept the responsibility or not. Accepting this responsibility is the most difficult thing we humans struggle with. Some of us accept it openly, while others want to believe that they need guidance by a supernatural entity. That is not necessary, because we have one another to admonish ourselves when we are wrong, and praise ourselves when we do amazing things.

The glue that makes us One, is that we are connected through a complex web of inter-relations, vis-a-vis, love, compassion. When we make a friendship, we become connected to the friends of our friends, ad infinitum. Social Media can show us that we all are connected at nth degrees of separation. And though I’m not a fan of Facebook, it has shown me that you can follow a trail from one of your friends to just about anyone else on the planet. It has exposed that we are all truly connected either directly or indirectly. But I will take a leap and say that we are connected a much more fundamental levels.

Last night, a friend of mine posted this reply in response to my last post. It is one of the most poignant observations I’ve read and I wanted to share it with you all.

It’s hard for Me – that is, everyone that I am, anyone that I am – to come to terms with being God…but once I know Myself, well, then, I know I am old and young, good and evil, man and woman, sick and healthy, straight and gay, and so on – how could I not have compassion, acceptance, love, and understanding of Myself? – Dr. Erik Andrulis

I urge you to check his blog, because he is on the same path as I am. And his insights might give you further food for thought.

So today, I will end this post with another question, and I ask you to step out of yourself before answering. Look at your friendships, your relationships, your family: Do you believe that every human on this planet is connected at a spiritual level or are we just islands in the sea?

I wanted to end this series with a positive message, and discuss the only thing that will fix our world, truly — Love and Compassion.

We all talk about love and compassion. Love is a word that is often thrown around with little earnestness. Do we do it because we feel obligated because someone else has said it? Do we actually really mean it? We should mean it, or not say it at all, because it can give the wrong impression, or make us appear as if we are just parrots.

How about compassion? Do we really empathize with others and show them compassion? In today’s world, so many people are hurting. This is just the reality we live in right now. For instance, here are many more homeless people in the world as a result of all the financial strife our country is facing. I see at least 10 of them every day. It’s hard to know which one’s are for real and which ones are just looking for drug money, or are scammers. This is where you have to listen to your inner self. It is a very difficult thing to learn how to tell those who are earnest, from those who are not. But if you have spare change, perhaps you should just give it away, no matter what. In the end, it’s not our place to judge one another. We must judge ourselves by our own actions. It really doesn’t matter if you give money to someone who doesn’t really need it, because it grows us all as people. We shed this judgmental aspect of our being, and foster compassion in our hearts.

I don’t want to talk about all the bad things going on in the world — you don’t need me to remind you of that. My simple message today is that we have to learn to be more compassionate and understanding to those around us. I know that we are all individuals, but as I’ve said we are all One. And when one of us is hurting, sometimes it just takes a kind word or gesture to completely change someone’s mood. And it also means we have to pay attention to our fellow humans. Some people hide their hurt deep inside. I personally am very observant of the people close to me — family, friends, co-workers. It doesn’t help to pry. But it does help to just show the person you care, and be earnest about it. When you say you are sorry to someone because they are hurting,grieving, or depressed, say it because you mean it, because they can tell by the tone of your voice whether you are earnest. If you can’t be earnest, don’t say anything at all, because that will just make things worse. Trust me, I know how I feel when someone says, “Aww…I’m so sorry.” But i can tell they don’t mean it, and that just makes me feel more alone and hurt.

So I am ending this series on Exploring Humanity, and next week I intend to move onto a less serious topic — The Universe. Feel free to suggest something to me. I’m always open to exploring new ideas.

But before I go, I just wanted to sum this series up by saying that the only true way we can change our world, is by first changing ourselves. These short essays were not intended to lecture you, or admonish you. There are many good people in the world, and everyone has good in them — we must believe that though finding the good may take more digging in some, than in others. Reach out to one another, befriend people and get out of your house. Enjoy this wonderful world. Revel in the company of friends and family. Find happiness in each and every day, even if it’s just for a moment. It has been a very rough ride for everyone on the planet for the last decade. But we can change it. I believe this and I hope you do too. If we can truly love one another, then we can accomplish anything.

So I leave you with this final question: Have you reached out and told someone you care about them today — and meant it?

Today I am going to explore a very difficult subject — Violence. Our world has always been filled with violence. Some people think things are getting worse, and they are. It’s also much more visible than it ever has been before due to the media and the internet. And, sadly enough, violence sells.

One night I did a little experiment. I sat down and turned on CNN Headline News for about 3 hours. During the time, I made a little mark in a note-book for every violent and non-violent story I saw. It was not surprising to me that over 60% of the stories that I saw were violent related. Why is this? Because we enjoy violence. It’s not to say that we are bad because of this. Like Fear, Violence is an instinct and a reaction for survival. We kill animals because we are omnivores. We kill each other out of a variety of reasons — religion, race, greed, envy, apathy, righteousness, and most of all, stupidity.

Killing is the most dire of all violence, but we perpetrate other forms of violence as well, the lesser violences. Spousal abuse, child abuse, verbal abuse, bullying, road rage, vandalism, and sadly, in self-defense. It is perplexing that we’ve not learned to overcome this. It is another sickness that plagues our society. One violent act begets another violent act, a vicious cycle, a butterfly effect. It is even more upsetting that we commit violent acts completely unprovoked.

We were originally violent by design, but we are supposed to evolve intelligently. The violence always comes back to fears and greed. We commit violence in the name of God — which is so beyond my comprehension I don’t even know where to begin with that topic. We commit violence over ideals, which again makes no sense — gay bashing, bullying, politics, entitlement issues and lack of understanding each others views. We commit violence over difference of opinions — who is to say who is truly right?

I could go on, but all of you know these things happen. And we all have at one point or another committed an act of violence — even as simple as biting a sibling over a favorite toy or the last cookie. It is ingrained in our psyche that violence is the last resort, the last answer, when in reality, it is the one thing we should strive the most to overcome. It is only then that we can focus on changing the world. But instead, we allow our governments to wage war on one another over silly things. Every culture on this planet is beautiful in its own way, it is what makes us unique. It is usually a handful of people who end up defining an entire culture. We generalize entirely too much, and we hold grudges entirely too long. Things happen — we should learn from our mistakes and move on, but we have not.

Wars are still happening. People are still killing, stabbing and maiming one another. We hate for no good reason. Everyone has their opinions on how to stop violence. So lets explore a couple of those.

Gun control, that will solve nothing because if someone wants a gun, they will get a gun, or a sword or a crossbow. The only way to stop people using guns is to stop having guns produced at all. But we know that’s impractical. Sure we can make it harder for people to get guns, but we all know where there is a will there is a way. Look how well the War on Drugs has worked. People still use drugs.

Sanctions against countries who are threats. Well that doesn’t work because it just makes them more determined to have their weapons of mass destruction. As much as I love this country, it is highly hypocritical to say that one country can have nuclear weapons, and another cannot. We did drop the first nuclear weapons, but on the other hand we’re saying no one else can have them? Who are we to say this? This has only made us a greater target because our involvement in other country affairs makes them hate us all the more.

Religion is absolutely not the way to stop violence, because all the major religions have teachings against violence, yet they have all been involved in acts of violence. The Crusades, Radical Islamists, The Inquisition, The Salem Witch Trials, The Holocaust — the list goes on. All these religions believe they are right, and they are entitled to their opinions, but, not one of them can prove that they are right. Not one.

There is only one way to stop violence forever — each of us must make a conscious decision to not commit an act of violence. And through this our children will learn that it is emphatically wrong to kill or harm anyone. Period. No exceptions. It is only through love that violence will be eradicated, and we will talk about that tomorrow.

So I leave you with this question: What is one thing you believe we, the human race, can do to end the violence in our world?

This is part two in my five-part series on Exploring Humanity. Today we are going to explore a very important subject — Greed.

I’ve chosen this particular topic because it seems to be one of the major aspects of human existence that is tearing our country and our world apart. It is the epitome of selfishness, it is the cancer that plagues our society and keeps us from being one people. But the question is why?

I often scoff at people who say “Greed is Good” after the Michael Douglas movie “Wall Street”. Greed is in no way, at all, even slightly good. It is an asinine pursuit for things that do not matter. It is eating until you burst. It is acquiring endless things you can’t possibly appreciate. It taking from those who do not have. It is wrong, pure and simple — and we can’t begin to change the world until we have learned temperance. Too much of anything, yes even money, is a bad thing. But we have not learned this simple lesson. If you had a billion dollars, what would you do with it? Collect a bunch of shiny things, like a raven, and store them in ever larger abodes?

Greed is what keeps us apart. The proverbial 1% vs. the 99%, and in the end what have we gained? Absolute power corrupts absolutely. We have all seen this time and again through human history. Greed never ends well, because, my fellow Dreamers, there is always someone more greedy than you and they will try to take what you have. This is an endless war that we’ve been fighting amongst ourselves since the dawn of humankind. We are all willing soldiers. We buy things we do not need. We strive for goals that do not improve our society. We think that the measure of the person is the size of their wallet. This is not so. The measure of any person is the size of their heart.

If you have everything you’ve ever wanted, what do you do next? When there’s nothing left to buy, and you’re used to having anything you want, this can lead to darker pursuits. There are people in this world that have so much money they can do literally whatever they want — human trafficking, corruption, manipulate the populace, even get away with murder.

I am not writing my books to be rich, or famous. I am writing my books to spread an allegorical message that things in this world are going bad, and that in the end, a great calamity is going to happen — I’ve just wrapped it up in a dark fantasy novel. I know anyone who has chosen to read my blog will agree with my postings, otherwise you wouldn’t be following me. You are all fellow Dreamers, and we are the ones who have to take on the responsibility of understanding our role in this change and just start doing it.

Our world is starving. Not just the people, but the planet itself. We are raping the planet of all its resources in this pursuit of greed, and eventually, we will end up killing ourselves and turn this planet into a uninhabitable desert, like Mars. We have allowed the television, the politicians and the banks to tell us we need this or that. We are only being told half-truths or just bold-faced lies. We need to force the truth. We need to stop electing people who tell us how to live. We should be telling our governments what we want and not the other way around. Because the people in power are the ones who cultivate greed like corn in an endless field.

I am not for one moment saying that we should incite a revolution, or a war, or protests — these are fruitless endeavors, and seldom make a lasting impact that is positive. We start within ourselves, within our families, within our communities and as it spreads from person to person, the world will change. Look around you as you read this post. How many things do you have that you don’t really use or care about? How many things can you donate to someone who doesn’t have something? How many things can be recycled or reused elsewhere? When you’re at the store looking to buy something, is it something you really need? Will you even want it a month or year from now?

I don’t have a lot of money, and I never have my whole life. Every single item I retain has a purpose for me. As soon as its lost its purpose, I give it away or recycle it, or simply trash it if it has no use. Of course, there are things I simply retain because they have sentimental value. And when I go to the store to buy something I think I want, I ask myself, “Do I REALLY need this?”. I also realize that if I keep buying things, I’m just making someone else rich.

So today I leave you with this question: What would you do if I gave you a million dollars right this minute?